Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's leadership role in undergraduate engineering education was once again featured at this year's American Society of Engineering Education's conference in San Antonio, Texas. Twenty Rose-Hulman administrators, faculty and staff members served as presenters and session chairs.

Innovative Experiences: Rose-Hulman Ventures has provided Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students valuable learning experiences on real-world projects with professional project managers. It is an unique educational model in undergraduate engineering education.

This annual meeting fosters the exchange of ideas, enhances teaching methods and curriculum, and provides prime networking opportunities for engineering and technology education stakeholders such as deans, faculty members, and industry and government representatives. Rose-Hulman had one of the largest groups attending the conference.

Bill Kline, Ph.D., Dean of Innovation and Engagement, presented a paper in the Entrepreneurship and Engineering Innovation Division on "Being Innovative: Lessons Learned from the Practice of Technology Commercialization." It summarized eight best practices learned from innovation-stage projects completed at Rose-Hulman Ventures, a technology commercialization program located at the college's South Campus. These projects serve as guidelines of how to "be innovative" for individuals and organizations in an educational environment.

"Innovation is emerging as a top priority for both corporate and academic organizations," states Kline, pointing out that innovation was named a top priority of a recent Boston Consulting survey of top executives. "In challenging economic times, when growth in revenue is difficult to achieve, 'being innovative' is critical to maximizing the returns from available resources. From an academic perspective, innovation may be essential to meet the challenges of increasing expectations and declining sources of support."

The success of the technology center was also the focus of the presentation "A Model for Stimulating Industrial Participation in Undergraduate Engineering Programs: 12 Years of Rose-Hulman Ventures" by Richard Stamper, Ph.D., Dean of Faculty. Co-authors were Mitch Landess, RHV's manager of client services, and Julia Williams, executive director of institutional research, planning and assessment.

Since opening in 1999, RHV has engaged students and technology-based companies in fee-for-service project work that provides challenging and exciting professional practice that's unique in higher education. It has provided over 2,500 paid internship positions to 880 students working on a range of design, prototyping and testing projects for over 144 client companies.

A number of Rose-Hulman faculty served in leadership roles at this year's ASEE conference. Carlotta Berry, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, served as the secretary for the Minorities in Engineering Division and president of the technical editor board for the Computers in Education Division. Kevin Sutterer, Ph.D., head of the Department of Civil Engineering, was chair for the Civil Engineering Division. Richard Layton, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering, was program chair for the Educational Research and Methods (ERM) Division.

Also, Glen Livesay, Ph.D., Samuel F. Hulbert Chair of Biomedical Engineering, was the program chair of the Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) and edits the newsletter for the ERM division. Renee Rogge, Ph.D., associate professor of applied biology and biomedical engineering, was chair of the Design in Engineering Education Division. And, Elton Graves, D.A., associate professor of mathematics, was program chair for the Mathematics Division and will be the division's chair for 2012-13.

Layton joined engineering education colleagues in receiving the 2012 Wickenden Award for the best paper in the ASEE's Journal of Engineering Education. The paper covered the topic "Race, Gender, and Measures of Success in Engineering Education." He and his research colleagues presented a poster on "SMARTER Teamwork: System for the Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education and Remediation of Teamwork" at the National Science Foundation's awardees session.

Craig Downing, Ph.D., head of the Department of Engineering Management, made a presentation on "An Engineering Management Investigation of Human Capital Needs" for the Engineering Management Division and "Responding to the Call: Extending the University Relationship via Continuing Education" for the Continuing Professional Development Division.

James Hanson, Ph.D., associate professor of civil engineering, made a presentation on "Capstone Design: Insights from an International Collaborative Student Team." It examined a senior design project this year in which three Rose-Hulman students collaborated with four people from Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. A co-author was John Aidoo, Ph.D., assistant professor of civil engineering.

Patricia Carlson, Ph.D., professor of American literature, gave a presentation on "Improving Engineering Education with Enhanced Calibrated Peer Review - Assessment of a Collaborative Research Project" for the Liberal Education and Engineering in Society Division. This was a report on a NSF grant she has collaborated with colleagues from LSU and UCLA.